Human
by Lacy Hewn Winwite
Summary: This story takes place seventeen years after The Host takes place, the seekers say that all "wild humans" have been found. The main character Graceland, is a human child born to soul parents. This is the story of her and her best friend Storm's adventure.


The Humans

Chapter One

"Bye Mom! Bye Dad!" I called over my shoulder as I stepped out the door. I walked down the street to my bus stop. I didn't want to go to school today, it was too nice out and school seamed like a waste of such a nice day. At least it was almost summer, we had two more weeks left before school got out and then I would have three months without any classes on the history of a people that I was not a part of.

It was a nice morning and even at 7:15 it was already warm. My mood brightened as I realized it was Friday. My heart pulsed as I thought of what the weekend had in store. I would be spending my Saturday with Storm, my best friend, we were going to the garden downtown, then to the bowling alley, and then we were going to the little lake front diner that served the best ice cream.

I was aware of somebody following me but I was used to it. It was part of my life. I stopped at my bus stop and the seeker stopped too. He stood watching me from about fifty yards away, I tried to ignore him but it was so hard not to think about why he was there. He was waiting and watching for me to mess up. He was waiting for an excuse to make me go away, to make me disappear.

I was one of few, a disappearing race. I was human. I did not have a soul. When the souls came to earth it was easy, the humans had no idea that they were there. But eventually they found out what was going on, they found out that the souls had come and were taking over the planet, but by then it was too late. The souls had already won. It was a simple process after they had gotten a few. Humans would enter a house and the souls living there would implant souls into their bodies. Once a soul was implanted they would take over the body and erase the mind of the former inhabitant. The body became a host.

Now the world had been completely taken over, humans had resisted, some humans had even taken their bodies back but the seekers fixed that by not offering adults as host bodies anymore. Just a year before I was born, one very famous soul, Wanderer, had her body taken over and had left civilization and joined a pocket of human resistance. When I was ten, the seekers announced that they had found all the humans and there were no more "wild humans."

Now, I came into the picture under very special circumstances. When I was born to my soul parents, the decided that they didn't want a soul implanted into me. They told the seekers that if I was raised by souls I would act like souls. The seekers didn't approve but they agreed warning my parents that if anything should go wrong they would implant a soul in me.

There were others like me, we were all about the same age, and we were scattered all over the world. I was rare for any of them to be near each other but there was one other who lived near me, my friend Storm. We were very lucky to have each other because outside of our families we were usually shunned. The souls feared us; they saw us as ticking time bombs that would eventually go off. The mistakes they were waiting for were things like, acts of violence, crime, or anything that would endanger the community.

I thought of this and shuddered. It seamed insane, why would I do anything like that? I was raised to love peace and goodness and to fear violence and hatred. Why couldn't the seekers understand that I was just like any soul?

With that thought my bus pulled up, and I got aboard. I watched out the window as the seeker grew farther and farther away and finally disappeared.

As I grew closer and closer to the school in the yellow school bus I began to prepare myself mentally for the day. It was something I had taught myself to do. Everyday I had to shut off my emotions, bottle them away where I could not feel the pain and solidity that I knew were coming. It was strange that in a world of peace and goodness one could still feel the searing edge of racism. In a world where everyone cared for each other and supported each other I still felt like an outsider. Would I ever belong?

I thought of the soul Wanderer, how had she felt as her body, Melanie, took over? Had she felt alone? Had she wondered to whom she could turn? She had not confided in her comforter. One question came to mind, how could she have felt alone if there had been two consciousnesses in her head?


End file.
